Fall Trip – Part 1

So, little late in getting this written up, but we did have a great fall trip through the San Juans and Gulf Islands in late September / early October.

We managed to sneak a full three weeks away from work, so plenty of time to drive and bring the sailing hound dog. And of course, with that amount of time, why not a few days of projects first? Three days of work (interspersed with visits with friends, dog walks, and breakfasts at Old Town Cafe) got us:

• Install Standard Horizon GX2200 VHF radio, which has built in GPS and built in AIS receiver.
  • Previous work at home had already yielded USB cable to take AIS output from radio and into laptop to be viewed on PolarView navigation software… pretty slick.
• Install Standard Horizon CMP31 RAM3+ remote microphone in cockpit… this lets us hear and transmit from the cockpit but while still using the 25 watts of power (and masthead antenna) of a fixed GPS instead of just a 5w handheld.
• New ground tackle
  • 45 pound Mantus anchor
  • 100′ of 5/16″ high test (G43) chain from LFS Marine in Bellingham (best price we found anywhere including online)
  • 200′ of 5/8″ Samson Super Strong Anchor Line (stronger than any 3 strand we could find
  • 3/8″ alloy anchor shackle (CM M848Ag)
  • Weakest link (such as it is) is the rode itself at 1900# working strength, should still be good for our boat to 42 knots

So, yeah, that kept us busy for a few days. Of course, it’s all worth the looks when you stuff 100′ of anchor chain into a small Audi wagon!

Time to roll! OK, not quite, a few more tasks. First, rig the whole new ground tackle, move the old ground tackle to a stern anchor setup. Fill the propane, fill the water. Swing and install the compass (tedious work running back and forth on known bearings but at least we were out on the water to do it). And away we go!

DAY 1 – Squallicum to Blind Island
An interesting day’s sail… a bit on the, how shall we say, variable side. Just enough wind to ghost along out in Bellingham Bay, with increasing strength as we near bottom of Lummi Island. By southern tip of Lummi it’s 20-25 knots with gusts higher than that, maybe high 20’s. Had been planning to practice heaving too (hadn’t done with this new boat before) but instead just did the real thing… she does heave to like a champ. So heave to, reef main and partially furl jib… still a little much… drop main, proceed under 2/3 jib alone doing 5 knots across to lee of Sinclair Island. Enter Rosario Strait, somewhat known for being burly… dead calm, not a breath of wind. WTF? Motor across the Rosario, through Obstruction Pass and bang, mid 20’s across bottom of East Sound toward Harney Channel. Very odd. But Boundary handles it well, the hound dog sleeps through the whole thing, and we grab a mooring at Blind Bay. Quick row to shore and the three of us mammals have the run of what has to be one of the smallest state parks ever, just Blind Island sitting right there. Very pleasant.

DAY 2 – Blind Island to Stuart Island
The plan this trip was some time in the Canadian Gulf Islands, so we were bee lining it over the border. Winds were light through the Wasp Passage and up the President Channel as we made our way toward Prevost Harbor. A brief attempt to sail from Waldron over to Stuart proved less than successful, so back to the iron genny for us. We arrived at Stuart early in the day, finding plenty of space at the dock (and plenty of water under the keel) in Prevost – at big tides we can’t make it in to the dock at low water, so happy to see the tidal swings were less than we saw on our spring trip. Spent a super pleasant afternoon reading and enjoying beautiful sunshine at Prevost, with a few walks on our and Hobie’s favorite island in the San Juans. Oh, and we got to try the inflatable couch… which comes off like a gag but is actually pretty damn comfortable! One surprise, there was a small cruise ship that came and anchored in Prevost and spent the night, complete with running engines and lights… not a big deal, but felt like someone was taking over our favorite place (I know, I know, we just stole it from people who’ve been coming for years, but…)

DAY 3 – Goin’ Canadian – Stuart Island to Tumbo Island via Bedwell Harbor
The big day we’d been planning for, our first travel across international borders by boat. Got an early start to beat the traffic (hah hah, the “traffic” is giant container ships and we did do one u-turn on the crossing, just to let the big boy go by… man they come around Turn Point fast, even when we’re watching the AIS!) and were in Bedwell Harbor by ~11AM. Quick phone call to Border Services to check in (no one on site, just a bank of phones) and we were good to go… whole thing took about 10 minutes. Of course, we’d been careful, no illicit fruits/vegetables, legal amounts of liquor and beer, and of course no weapons, so we were an easy check in… we had rabies papers for the dog but they never even asked. Based on some weather forecasts, and how nice a day it was, we decided to hot foot it (such as we can in a 5 knot boat) to our first big goal, Tumbo and Cabbage Islands. These two very small islands make up a provincial park off the tip of Saturna Island… the anchorage is protected but certainly not bulletproof, so best visited in settled weather. We took a long route way out around the tip of Saturna to avoid Boiling Reef (kind of goes without saying, right?) and to give some space to the overfalls and tidal rips off the point of Saturna… with full flood current ripping over a little uprise in the sea floor it’s pretty choppy even a mile offshore. Great sea life in the tidal falls though, lots of dolphins finding tasty things to eat. The entry into the mooring field at Cabbage is a little tight between some unmarked reefs, but GPS, a guidebook and an abundance of caution got us in.

What we found made this a new favorite place for us, and we didn’t even get to explore that much this time around. Cabbage Island is tiny, but very cool and weather beaten. Great views on the back side of the island looking out at the Strait of Georgia and Vancouver across the way. Tumbo is the larger island and looks very cool as well, but we didn’t explore because the tricky dinghy landing looked dicey with the hound dog and, oddly enough, the island was essentially “closed” for a controlled burn that was going to go on the next day. We’d hoped to spend two days here but decided one would be plenty and to get out the next morning before the smoke got too thick… Bass is on vacation after all! But this spot is definitely on the “return again” list… we hope to get Nexus cards over the winter and this would be a perfect place to use them, quick jump from Sucia to Tumbo and back with just phone calls to check in and out (ideally) of both Canada and the US.

Reef Harbor morning 360 video:

Stay tuned for Part II, coming soon… Montague Harbor, Salt Spring Island, the requisite mechanical troubles, and Victoria!